The world...ended. Nobody knows how. The final war? A plague? Weather? All of the above? 

You are the survivors. Anthropomorphic animals. That is, half animal, half human. Dogs, cats, moose, rats walking on two legs, talking, thinking. Divided into tribes. For all your lives, you have lived protected in Paradise Valley- the last safe place in a wasteland of sickness. Or so the Watchers say. These machines say that they protect you from the hostile outside. But many have started to suspect that they are not so benevolent. Sometimes a member of a tribe disappears, taken by the Watchers. If they return, they are broken, scared. Others say that there is a world free from Watchers away from Paradise Valley. If you could just get out there and explore, maybe there is a better life waiting for all animals out there.

It is time to organize the resistance, and you will be leaders of that resistance.

The learners will get to experience the award winning table-top roleplaying game Mutant: Year Zero, Genlab Alpha produced by the Free League game company, introducing the revolutionary Year Zero Engine game system. No experience of table-top role-playing games is required. Beginners might even find this system easier to learn than DnD.

I started playing in this setting when I was 12. The game is set in a dystopian future, after the apocalypse, much like Mad Max, or other similar movies/shows. Players will manage their home base and explore the world, possibly discovering secrets about their origins as they go.

The week of February 1st, the learners will design their characters, as well as get to know the basics about Paradise Valley and the various animal tribes.

The week of February 8th the learners will do their first adventure as leaders of the resistance.

The week of February 15th, the learners will do their first resistance missions, a mini-game much like a board game where they send various resistance cells on missions against the watchers.

The week of February 22nd. The learners do another adventure.

Genlab Alpha is excellent for an Ongoing class. One reason is that the game is, unlike DnD, a so-called Sandbox game. I.e. the players are in charge of what happens from session to session. The Game Master does not, in this game, decide which plot the characters have to follow, or in which order certain things have to happen. As leaders of the resistance, the learners set the agenda. Thus, players during session 5 are not tied down by the decisions made by the players of session 4, but are free to explore some completely different part of the world, and make other decisions for the home base. That makes this game more suitable for an Ongoing class than DnD. Further, since the players start with a home base, it is easy to come and go. If a player attends the first session, and then misses the second session, their character is simply assumed to do things in the home base, etc. Also, character creation is much faster than in DnD. In DnD, it takes a new player about an hour, if not more, to create a new character. In Genlab Alpha, it takes closer to 15-20 minutes, because the rule-system is fast and easy to learn. Thus, if a learner joins after week 4 or even later, we can build a character together quickly and then jump straight in, as the game system is easy to learn.